The present invention relates to theme park attractions. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device, system and method for creating physiological illusions in a viewing guest.
Physiological illusions are effects on the eyes or brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type such as brightness, tilt, color, and movement. The theory is that stimuli have individual dedicated neural paths in the early stages of visual processing, and that repetitive stimulation of only one or a few channels causes a physiological imbalance that alters perception. Physiological illusions generally include afterimages following bright lights or adapting stimuli of excessively longer alternating patterns.
These physiological illusions are produced because an image is produced by the “patterned excitation” of the cones and rods in the retina. The excitation is processed by the neuronal system and various parts of the brain working in parallel to form a representation of the external environment in the brain. The cones respond to bright light and mediate high-resolution vision and color vision. The rods respond to dim light and mediate lower-resolution, black-and-white, and night vision. When light falls on a receptor it sends a proportional response synaptically to bipolar cells which in turn signal the retinal ganglion cells. The receptors are also ‘cross-linked’ by horizontal cells and amacrine cells, which modify the synaptic signal before the ganglion cells. Rod and cone signals are intermixed and combine, although rods are mostly active in very poorly lit conditions and saturate in broad daylight, while cones function in brighter lighting because they are not sensitive enough to work at very low light levels.
After-imaging, in particular, is an optical illusion that refers to an image continuing to appear in one's vision after the exposure to the original image has ceased. One of the most common afterimages is the bright glow that seems to float before one's eyes after staring at a light bulb or a headlight for a few seconds. The phenomenon of afterimages may be closely related to persistence of vision, which allows a rapid series of pictures to portray motion, which is the basis of animation and cinema.
After-images come in two forms, negative (inverted) and positive (retaining original color). Negative after-images are a retinal phenomenon and are well understood. Negative after-images are caused when the eye's photoreceptors, primarily those known as cone cells, adapt from the over stimulation and lose sensitivity. Normally the eye deals with this problem by rapidly moving the eye small amounts, the motion later being “filtered out” so it is not noticeable. However if the color image is large enough that the small movements are not enough to change the color under one area of the retina, those cones will eventually tire or adapt and stop responding. The rod cells can also be affected by this.
Positive afterimages are less understood. Generally, they appear the same color as the original image. They are often very brief, lasting less than half a second, and may not occur unless the stimulus is very bright. The cause of positive after-images is not well known, but possibly reflects persisting activity in the visual system where the retinal photoreceptor cells continue to send neural impulses to the occipital lobe, suggesting that the experience of a stimulus can vary with the intensity of the stimulus. Only very bright stimuli produce positive afterimages, and a stimulus which elicits a positive image will usually trigger a negative afterimage quickly via the adaptation process.
Creating illusions in the art of theme parks are known. Illusions have been created using mirrors, molds, special glasses and lighting techniques. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,391 describes a negative bust illusion formed from a surface that presents a concave side to viewers to generate an illusion that the object always gazes at viewers as they move within an enlarged field of view. U.S. Pat. No. 5,650,815 describes a method and apparatus for creating an illusion of depth when viewing moving pictures projected on a plane surface. Glasses to worn by a viewer when viewing the moving pictures have the property of altering or distorting the real image projected. The disparity between the apparent images viewed by the two eyes creates an image disparity that is interpreted as a perception of depth. The glasses incorporate a lens for the dominant eye and a lens for the docile eye which narrows the image along the visual plane and the lens for the docile eye broadens the image along the visual plane. The lens for each eye is appropriately tinted to enhance the perception of depth. The glasses are reversible to enable placing the desired lens in front of the dominant and thus the docile eye.
However, past imaging devices do not create perceived images that are physiological in nature only, nor do past imaging devices and do not sufficiently utilize positive or negative after-imaging.
Accordingly, there is a desire for a device, system and method that produce a physiological illusion in a guest during a theme park attraction.